Presque vu XXXI

Writerjenn has some advice for people who would like to write fiction. This is an extract. Follow the link for more.

Why are my bad guys so bad? Were they good once, but were hurt somehow? Can they become good again, or are they past hope? What are their redeeming qualities? What do the bad guys want?
Do my good guys have any flaws–if so, what?
Are my good guys more sympathetic than my bad guys? If not, what can I do to change this?
Will any of my good guys turn out to be secretly bad, or vice versa? Will anyone switch sides–if so, how and why?
Who’s going to win? Will it be a “final” ending? Can good ever “finally” vanquish evil?

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An interesting interview with Arundhati Roy at haaretz.com:

Arundhati Roy writes her articles for, and publishes them first, in the Indian press, in English, after which they are translated into the multitude of Indian languages. She is able to write in Malayalam – the language spoken in Kerala, the southern state where she grew up, “but not as a writer,” she explains. “When I grew up, I learned the language, but my mother used to hit me if I spoke it. I had to write down, ‘I will speak English, I will speak English.’ So now English is the language I am most comfortable in.” That, she says, is the way things are when you have a Christian mother from Kerala and a Hindu father from Bengal.

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Chinese dissident, Guo Feixong, has been sentenced to five years jail for illegally published a book which exposed widespread corruption in the north-eastern city of Shenyang.
He received a five-year jail term and was fined $6,000.ABC News reports that human rights groups are criticizing the country’s legal system.

2 Responses to “Presque vu XXXI”

RE: Chinese dissident, Guo Feixong, has been sentenced to five years jail for illegally published (sic) a book which exposed widespread corruption…

Hi, I came across this page after googling the following:

“five years jail for” book on corruption

I was in fact trying to verify information given to me by someone who’s if both highly intelligent and highly weird. He told me of some in MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA who was jailed for five years for publishing a book on police corruption IN AUSTRALIA.

This HIHw (highly intelligent, highly weird) guy says a lot of things, half of which DO make sense, I just can’t figure out which half.

Anyway, if you find any info to back up my claim, I hope you’ll email me. I’ll also leave you with a web address you may find interesting–it was one of the links that resulted using the above-mentioned search: